Freelancer Cadet Academy
by WonderCupcakess
Summary: Over two hundred young men and young women. Some were bred to go to war; some made questionable choices. It didn't matter how they ended up there; they were there for one purpose and one purpose only. To serve the UNSC blindly without question. This is their story. AU


_There are over two hundred of us here. Over two hundred young men and women in one spot; some of us were bred from birth to be soldiers and some of us just made poor decisions in life and ended up here. My name is Hayley Albarn this isn't just my story; it's all of ours._

Forest  
Cadet Albarn Hayley  
November 24 2578  
00:01 am

My breath came out in icy puffs in front of me as the driver of the whatever-the-hell we were in skidded around another corner of the dirt road we had been driving on for the last hour. "I have to go pee!" I heard a voice behind me whine. I turned slightly in my seat to face the source and, of course, it's the same blonde girl that had whined and complained the entire ride on the Pelican. As I opened my mouth to say something, the blond guy next to her frowned. "Then you should have gone to the bathroom before we left, Lisa." He replied, his comment snarky. Lisa shot him an icy glare and then looked at me. "What are you looking at?" she bit out. "Honestly, nothing." I replied, satisfied with the venom that coated my words.

I turned back around in my seat and faced the dense and seemingly endless forest ahead of us. A few of the people behind me shivered and complained about the cold, though it didn't bother me much. I was from Earth and this was a normal temperature given the time of year it was. "Mister Driver, how long is going to be? It's cold and we're all tired." came Lisa's annoying voice once more. A soft growl escaped the driver as he tightened his grip on the steering and he took and extra sharp turn around a tight corner, jostling us more and waking the ones that had fallen asleep. I rolled my eyes slightly and slid down in seat that I thankfully got to myself and closed my eyes, deciding that we probably had a few more hours until we got there.

Boy, was I wrong.

It felt like it had been only a few minutes before the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. My eyes flew open and I saw a woman with brown hair in a pixie cut standing in front of us wearing what I thought was a literal cat suit with a tail and everything standing in front of us, smiling. "Good morning cadets! Out of the warthog! Hurry, hurry! The quicker we get to the academy, the quicker you all can get to sleep!" she chirped happily. I was already annoyed with her. Grumbling softly, I clambered out of the warthog and shivered slightly into the thin jacket over my shoulders. "We're going to take a little run! Try to keep up!" the woman giggled, walking and then jogging up the trail that led deeper into the woods. Not wanting to get lost in the woods full of who knows what, we all ran after her.

I started in the middle of the group, Lisa and her blonde counterpart at the head of the pack. Beside me on the right, a smaller girl with eyes grey like the night and shoulder length brown hair struggled to keep up. "Leave her! We have to catch up!" a voice to my left yelled, grabbing my attention. Caleb Evans was his name. He and I bonded almost instantly on the Pelican ride to wherever we were. "We're a team Caleb! No one gets left behind!" I called, falling back further to retrieve the girl whose name I didn't even know. She was doubled over and panting heavily when I got to her and everyone else had blown past us. "C'mon… If we get separated from them, we'll never find our way back." "I… I can't…" the girl said, panting heavily.

An explosion a yard or two in front of us rocked the sleeping forest around us and interrupted my attempted response. Lisa's shrill scream sliced through the early morning air, making the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Picking the girl up and practically throwing her on my back, I ran to the stunned Lisa who sat on the ground, her icy blue eyes wide with shock and fear. "What the hell happened?!" she yelled, shaking her head slightly.

Yeah, I could already tell it was going to be a _loooong_ morning.


End file.
